Musa Cliffortiana
| Author | Linné, Carl von |
|---|---|
| Full title | Musa Cliffortiana florens Hartkampi 1736 prope Harlemum |
| Year | 1736 |
| Place | Leiden |
| Publisher/Printer | n.n. |
| Era | 18th century |
| Form/Genre | Monograph, Historia |
| Discipline/Content | Biology |
| Digital copies | |
| Original | Musa Cliffortiana (Google Books) |
| Digital sourcebook | 677275 |
| Description | This short work, an early example of a botanical monograph, comprises 46 quarto pages. It was written during Linnaeus’s stay at George Cliffort’s summer residence Hartecamp near Haarlem. Cliffort had a rich collection of plants in his gardens and Linnaeus was employed to write a detailed description of it, the so-called Hortus Cliffortianus. Moreover, Linnaeus wrote this Musa Cliffortiana about Cliffort’s banana. The work opens with the dedication Ut floreant Musae that is probably a word play as the most common name for the banana at this time was (and still is the name of the biological genus) Musa. This is derived from Arabic but homonym to Musa, the Muse. Hence, the dedication could mean “the Muses” or “the bananas” or even “this work titled Musa” shall flourish”. In the main treatise (p. 5 f.), Linnaeus states that Musa is in fact derived from Arabic, but as botanists despise vernacular words and replace them with Latin or Greek words, he could either get rid of the name or use another etymology (cum autem botanici fere omnes in consuetudine habuere nomina plantis imponenda e Graeca vel Latina lingua desumere, atque peregrina ex aliis linguis oriunda nomina dispungere, aliaque in eorum locum substituere, necesse erit, ut aut reiciatur hocce nomen vel alia inducatur etymologia). He opts for the latter possibility and presents etymologies that derive Musa from the ancient goddess or even better from Antonius Musa, an ancient botanist and Emperor Augustus' personal physician. The paratexts include two dedicatory poems one by Johann Alexander Roell of five dactylic hexameters praising Cliffort and Linnaeus and another very elegant poem in ten Alcaic stanzas (i.e., 40 verses) by Hendrik Snakenburg’s. The last paratext is Linnaeus’s dedicatory letter to George Cifford dated Leiden on 20th of February 1736.
A short introductio of one and a half pages (the pagination starts here) opens the main text. Linnaeus highlights the strange yet fascinating properties of this exotic plant and summarizes which questions he is going to answer. The treatise is divided into seven main parts subdivided into 35 subchapters that are numbered consecutively. Linnaeus first discusses names of the banana (vernacular and Latin, ancient and recent, including references), and their etymology (see above). Then he deals with the taxonomy (titled Theoretica), followed by a detailed description of the genus and the species, the banana’s biological and ecological properties (habitat, geographic range, blooming period, anatomy [no microscopic observations as Linnaeus states]), and its use in economy, as food and medicine, etc. The last part (Litteraria) is dedicated to the history of human interactions with bananas, early accounts on the plants, and with superstitious beliefs concerning bananas (superstitia et vana). This is concluded by another dedication Floreat mea Musa per annos (“My ‘Musa’ shall flourish through times”) corresponding to the opening of the work. There are also two engravings, one of the whole plant and one with details of blossoms etc. together with its key. |
| References | Freer 2007 (reprint with English translation and introduction) |
| Cited in | |
| How to cite this entry | Linné, Carl von: Musa Cliffortiana, in: Noscemus Wiki, URL: http://wiki.uibk.ac.at/noscemus/Musa_Cliffortiana (last revision: 04.04.2022). |
| Internal notes | |
| Internal notes | |
| Of interest to | DB, IT |
| Transkribus text available | Yes |
| Written by | DB |
